Media Release 4 May 2004

Health Innovation Awards Finalists Announced

New Zealanders are reaping the benefits of novel and cost-efficient health care innovations developed by the 25 finalists named today in the 2004 New Zealand Health Innovation Awards. Selected from 126 entries, their innovations include a mobile operating theatre that travels the country, a low-cost tattoo removal service, a new way of helping people find their way around a hospital and a school based peer support programme.

Changes to the way that patients with stomach upsets are treated have resulted in a $1.5 million saving for Auckland District Health Board while a bar code scanner used in a colour vision test at Christchurch Hospital has trimmed the time to produce reports from an hour to four minutes.

New Zealand's premier health and rehabilitation awards were first sponsored by ACC and the Ministry of Health last year to promote and encourage health innovation and the sharing of good ideas that can benefit more New Zealanders.

The 25 finalists are located across the country and represent both the main centres and smaller towns such as Waihi and Gore. They offer a diverse range of ideas, initiatives and solutions that will speed recovery that can be transferred to health providers across the country.

The finalists will exhibit their entries at Te Papa in Wellington on June 14 when the winners will be announced at a special ceremony and dinner.

The overall winner will receive $15,000.

Last year's winner of the supreme award was a retinal screening programme developed by Wellington Independent Practitioners? Association (WIPA) and the New Zealand Association of Optometrists. The programme screened 4000 people in its first year.

Profiles of each of the finalists can be found on the Health Innovations Awards website at: www.healthinnovationawards.co.nz

ENDS

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